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American Made

Back in the States on what amounts to a short furlough from my Nica fam, I checked this movie (DVD) out of my local library. It covers some of the CIA-Contra story in Nicaragua, early 80s. I don't know how accurate it is historically; in Wiki, the director said it was "a fun lie based on a true story." Barry Seal, a hot-shot young pilot bored working for TWA, is recruited by the CIA to fly surveillance mission in Central America and Colombia, photographing guerrilla encampments. True to spy M.O. the CIA's involvement is done with total deniability. In Colombia Seal gets recruited by narco-lords to run cocaine - apparently unbeknownst to CIA, for whom he keeps snapping pix. I remember reading on NL a comment Fyl (FYdel or Toni Solo?) made about the CIA helping finance the Contra-Sandinista civil war by transporting and selling coke. That was news to me - I took it with a grain of salt, but held onto it. Everybody knew of Reagan-North's Iran-Contra arms gambit that worked for a short while. And I later read of the Saudis helping finance the US involvement in the 'cold war' gone hot in Nicaragua. Sure somebody like DeLorean could try trafficking 'snow' to help float a start-up to compete with GM, but the CIA? Well, this flick paints a different picture: that the CIA didn't know Seal ran coke, as he continued doing their surveillance and brought guns to the Contras. Later they used his property in Arkansas (secret airfield, a gift from CIA) to train Contras that he flew there (half of whom ran away to live & work in America). The movie turns comic as Seal's cracker bro'n-law takes one of Seal's suitcase full of money into town to buy a car, which results in the state police, ATF, DEA and FBI raiding the place simultaneously, no one sure who has arresting authority. Seal is pulled out of jail by the White House to pull off a sting op for the DEA in Nicaragua which successfully shows the Sandinistas doing business with the narco-lords Pablo Escobar & Jorge Ochoa. In the end he's killed by a hit man. The story is told through Seal's self-made video tapes.